Halo Review

genre

N/A

players

N/A

Publisher

Microsoft

Developer

N/A

Release Date

11/30/1999

Out Now

Platform

PC

Xbox

rating

My Halo is better than yours”

Like legions of PC gamers, I was pretty pissed when Bungie’s awesome Halowound up coming out for the Xbox instead of the PC. It had been touted as aPC game since its inception. It was a slap in the face, as if the love of mylife decided to shack up and wrestle sheets with Bill Gates. I was dejected,betrayed, bamboozled, hoodwinked and thoroughly upset.

Then I reviewed the Xbox version, and suddenly all was forgiven. The game proved sensational and is still one of the best first-person shooters on any system.

So after fourlong years, we finally get to see Halo running on a PC thanksto Gearbox, who took over the port job from Bungie. Even though the game doesn’tdo for the PC what it did for the big black box, it’s still a very impressiveFPS offering. Intuitive mouse and keyboard control coupled with a variety ofonline multiplayer options have earned this Halo admittancethrough the pearly gates. But be warned: you’ll need a divine system to enjoythis gem to its fullest.

For the most part, the story and single player gameplay remain unchanged.The drama unfolds in the distant Halo galaxy, named after the huge donut-shapedobject that floats there. Humanity’s long standing war with the amalgamatedalien race known as the Covenant has brought you to Halo via the Pillar of Autumn(a mini SDF1-sized battlecruiser). Before long, you and a handful of crew members find yourselves strandedon the giant ring, fighting for your lives and possession of the planet itself.

You assume the guise of Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced super Marinewith some very handy rechargeable armor. Offering suggestions and general navigationis the Pillar of Autumn’s onboard computer, Cortana. This little construct hasbeen transplanted into your hi-tech helmet for easy transport and it plays avital role in Halo‘s story.

And that story is compelling, with enough twists to keep you guessing. Fromthe smart writing to the well-scripted voice talent, Bungie was obviously seriousabout Halo‘s plan from start to finish.

But this isn’t a book, people. Shooting hordes of ridiculously intelligentaliens and driving a variety of vehicles serves as the bulk of Halo‘sgameplay. All the weapons from the Xbox version make a return, including themachine gun, pistol, frag grenades, sniper rifle, shotgun and rocket launcher.Covenant weaponry (which can be picked up and used, remember) is back as well.These are energy-based and brutal; Covenant weapons more easily slice throughCovenant energy shields, which obviously comes in handy. The Needler and adhesiveplasma grenades are two of the coolest weapons you’ll find in any FPS.

Handling these noise-makers is made easier than ever thanks to the mouse andkeyboard support, arguably the way Halo is supposedto played. While the Xbox control’s ease and intuitive use amazed us, it paleswhen stacked against the tried and true WASD control scheme. You just feel likeyou have complete control, which can never be overstated. But if a controlleris what floats your boat, then Halo offers full support forDirect X compatible gamepads. Or just go turn on your Xbox.

There are plentyof instances where being a foot soldier just won’t cut it. Not to worry, becauseyou can still drive, hover and fly across many of Halo‘s gorgeouslandscapes. Driving the Warthog buggy, Scorpion tank, Ghosts and Banshees ispretty easy. Each vehicle handles differently – the Warthog is the most difficultto drive due to its point-then-accelerate control, but this is made much easierwith the mouse and keyboard.

Despite what you hear on Dr.Phil, looks matter. Halo is still one of the best-lookinggames on the Xbox, and lucky for us the port kept in most of the goodies. Reflectivesurfaces and photorealistic elements such as grass and skies really show offthe game’s eye-candy. Great bump-mapping and attention to detail gloss overthe fact that many of the textures look a bit flat when up close. It doesn’tlook quite as good as the Xbox version, but after all, it’s a port. Cateringto a countless number of system configurations can be costly.

Speaking of which, I hope you spent last month’s salary upgrading your rig,because the system requirements needed to turn up all graphical goodness isjust unforgiving. On a 1.2 Ghz CPU w/ 768 MB of DDR memory and a new Radeon9800 card, the game still chugs horribly at any resolution above 1024×768 withmoderate anti-aliasing. Things fared slightly worse using an Nvidia FX 5900,if you’d believe it. Unless you have an uber-rig you’ll have to scale thingsback quite a bit to get it running smoothly. I guess the game is all about processorpower.

During multiplayer matches (more on that in a bit), people often stop mid-game just to offer advice to other gamers on how to properly adjust their settings for smooth gameplay. Where’s our tech-support kickbacks? At any rate, you’ll need a great rig to get this looking right, a far cry from the sweet standardization of console gaming.

But far from standard is the game’s A.I. Your enemies are smart and legion,two things we don’t often see in FPS games. You’ll occasionally team up withvarious Marine NPCs, who are a great help and add a good deal of realism tothe mix. They’ll split up, charge, grab their own vehicles, ride shotgun orman Warthog gun turrets. And most importantly, they’ll accurately cover yourbehind. Plus, their banter is fitting, varied and often comical.

However, a keen battle sense is required when dealing with the Covenant warriors,who are still formidable adversaries. They too will split up and try to flankyou. They will often seek cover, charging or retreating depending on the oddsof survival. Some of them have impenetrable shields, some have cloaking devices(ala thePredator), some have swords and many have at least two of the three.

The game’s A.I. really comes into play when you raise the difficulty settings.I have yet to play another FPS this realistically challenging. The hardest settingis a love/hate relationship of frustration and sheer enjoyment. I heartily recommendit.

In our review of the Xbox version, we didn’t really get into Halo‘slevel design. The seamless indoor/outdoor environments are fantastic, but theydo repeat a lot. You’ll cover the same ground often, which at times gets repetitive.

The one area whereHalo PC really differs from its Xbox brother is its onlinemultiplayer support for up to 16 players. Along with the familiar maps fromthe Xbox version, six new multiplayer maps are here for a total of fifteen.Games include Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Last Man Standing, Race, King ofthe Hill and Oddball, all of which (except Oddball) can be played as Team gamesif you desire. In Oddball, one character must hold a skull for a given amountof time while everyone goes crazy trying to take him down. You can’t fire aweapon, but the skull does devastating melee damage. Capture the Flag and theRaces are easily the most fun.

To spice things up, Gearbox has included some exclusive online content forthe PC version. You can now choose between the normal Warthog and a black versionfitted with a rear-mounted rocket launcher. Two new weapons are here as well:the Covenant fuel-rod cannon and a flamethrower. The fuel-rod fires consecutiveplasma blasts in an arc and boasts a speedy re-fire rate, while the flamethroweris, well, a flamethrower. Rounding out the new bits is the ability to add theCovenant Banshees to just about any multiplayer map for added strategy and fun.

However, after all these years you still can’t play as the aliens in the onlinemultiplayer, which is the way Halo was originally advertisedso many years ago. Red and blue versions of the exact same character modelsare a bit silly considering the inherent warring sides already built into thegame. Color-coded Marines fighting each other seems more like a watered-downtraining simulation than a full-fledged war between factions.

The multiplayer modes also feel a little too simplistic considering the potential.Halo was originally designed as a Tribes-esquegame featuring a compelling mix of team play and mission-based multiplayer.This changed when it moved to the Xbox, but I really hoped they would have rethoughtit for the PC version. Instead, it simply feels like just a port of the Xboxversion rather than the phantasmagoric PC game we have all been waiting for.Plus, the super-cool co-operative mode is grossly absent from this installment.It’s a real bummer since that was one of the best ways to play through the original,and the multiplayer doesn’t entirely make up for the omission.

But there are still countless hours of fun to be had with Halo.If you couldn’t stomach the control pad and the lack of online support (or Xboxitself) really turned you away from the Xbox version, then this Halois sure to please.